AI x Women’s Health: A Conversation Rooted in Reality

What happens when you bring together AI, women’s health, and lived experience?

What happens when you bring together AI, women’s health, and lived experience?

That’s exactly what I got to speak about during a panel at Montreal AI Week with Toast — and the conversation was energizing.

I was asked to speak about the intersection of AI x Women’s Health.

I shared my journey across science research, product management, and AI/ML—paired with 15+ years of tracking my own health data. And here's the crux of what I focused on 👇🏽

🔍 Gaps where AI can move the needle:

1. Research — Let’s shift from “women’s health” as a category to actually improving the health of women. That means

   1. recognizing that women’s health is a BROAD spectrum of health ranging from cognitive and brain health to cardiovascular health to aging, and more.

   2. recognizing that signs in health look different in men than women

   3. identifying new biomarkers and enabling early diagnosis.

   4. leveraging various segments of data that can influence our outcomes, like ethnicity, geography, etc

2. Actionable insights — Generic data isn’t helpful. AI has the potential to enable personalized care and meaningful solutions.

   1. We know what what the “general” trends are, but how does that apply to me?

   2. And what can I do about it?

3. Literacy & confidence — AI in healthcare is more than just analyzing clinical data, it can change the way we educate ourselves about experiences in navigating healthcare.

   1. How can we leverages insights from the collective experiential knowledge?
      

⚠️ AI brings it’s own challenges

We must stay grounded in:

1. Privacy & security - I wonder how many end users we’re losing out because women are rightfully apprehensive about their data being collected.

   1. Laws and regulations always follow innovation, but getting ahead of the curve on this could be the win companies need to gather the data necessary for AI solutions to be meaningful.

2. Bias in data - we know women’s data has been underrepresented, but women’s health is moving the conversation beyond gender to race, genetics, and so many other facets of underrepresentation that enable “personalization”.

3. Advocacy and censorship - even when you have do make great solutions, what happens when you can’t leverage SEO because platforms deem your content “inappropriate”?

   1. That’s what happens to so much innovation in the women’s health space today. Organizations like CensHERship are doing critical work here.

4. Knowing when AI isn’t the right solution - you can have all the predictive analytics to tell you when you’re starting your period. But AI isn’t going to solve the need for CPG (pads, tampons, discs) and access to them at the right time and right place.
   

💙 Companies to watch out for

• Diem - is building “social search engine” leveraging the massive world of user generated content. It’s like asking a question in your girls group chat ◡̈

• Oura - smart ring that monitors health metrics like sleep, activity, and heart rate, utilizing AI through features like the Oura Advisor to provide personalized health insights and recommendations.

• BloomLife - “combining connected devices with cloud based data analytics to improve access to care, empower women, and provide clinicians with information to more effectively screen and manage pregnancy complications.”

• ReyaHealth - personalized solutions to match you to the best birth control options with accessible, innovative, and reliable sexual health counseling services

It’s an exciting time to be at the intersection of AI and women’s health.

Grateful to have been on a panel with these incredible women: Elise Epaillard, Catherine Dupont-Gagnon, and Nakita Rao.

Thank you to Toast and ELANTech (ex-Montreal NewTech)!